How did we get so dark?
by paperdragons503
Summary: Peter's so wrapped up in his internship he doesn't realise the impact that it's having on those around him. A look in to how Peter's afterschool activities affects those he loves, and what Peter will do when he realises his actions are pushing away the most important people in his life. Set during Spiderman Homecoming - will contain spoilers.
1. Chapter 1

Hi

Quick A/N just to start - I don't own Spiderman or anything Marvel related. The only thing I do own is the storyline and any OC characters that may feature.

It's been a long time since I've written anything but this movie really inspired me.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I enjoyed writing it.

* * *

"Peter?! I'm home. You in yet?!"

May yelled as she kicked open the door, keys in one hand and a paper bag full of groceries in the other. Pushing the door shut with her foot, she dropped her keys in the bowl resting on the table by the door and kicked off her shoes, sighing with the relief of finally being out of those heels and back in her own home.

"Peter?" She called out again, but like usual over the last couple of months, when she returned home he wasn't there.

She was glad that he'd gotten this Stark internship and that he seemed to be enjoying it but she really missed seeing him when she got home.

As strange as it may sound, he was one of her best friends and she looked forward to hearing him tell her all about his day as soon as she got in every evening. Ever since he started this internship it was like he was never home. When he was he was always tired. And he almost never told her about what he got up to.

May sighed as she plodded in to the kitchen and began puting her groceries away.

She supposed that this was bound to happen at some point anyway, after all he was 15, but there was something about this whole internship thing that worried her. He'd tried to hide it but she knew he snuck in and out of the house at all times of the day. What kind of internship required a 15 year old to sneak out of their bedroom window at 3am?

And the bruises. He tried covering them up but she knew.

 _If he was just working in a lab how could he get hurt so much?_

 _Interns were just supposed to file paper and get coffee, what was he doing that he was coming home covered in cuts and bruises all the time?_

Of course, like every adult raising a child she knew that he wouldn't always be waiting for her to come through the door, rushing at her and hugging her knees as he babbled excitedly about his day. He had to grow up eventually but this...this had not been what she was expecting.

No, something about this whole Stark Internship just did not sit right with her, not one bit.

The sound of the phone ringing pulled her out of her thoughts and May reached over to grab the cordless phone sitting in its charger by the fridge. Taking a quick look at the caller ID she couldn't help but stop the grin spreading across her face at the name "Chrissie" flashing back at her.

Peter may not be home but at least she knew there was one of her babies that she could still talk to.

"Hey Chrissie Bear!"

"Hi Aunt May!"

May's smile only grew. She always loved to hear the sound of her God Daughter's voice.

Chrissie's mother Georgia had been May's best friend since she was in high school and the two were still close friends to this day.

She was a lawyer for a big firm in the city and her job regularly required that she go out of state to work on high profile cases. May mostly worked from home and had a few odd jobs here and there so she'd been looking after both Peter and Chrissie since they were babies, whenever their mothers needed them to be cared for.

As a result Chrissie was often in and out of her appartment while she was growing up - especially after Peter's parents died and he moved in with her permanently.

The two had been the best of friends since birth, having her best friend and her honorary Aunt under the same roof just meant Chrissie got to spend more time with both of them. May always loved it when she stayed over.

But, as she got older, Georgia wanted to give her daughter the choice. So, whenever she was going out of town she would let Chrissie choose what she wanted to do - on the basis that Chrissie checked in with May and Peter every day to make sure everything was ok.

This had been the third time since the arrangement was put in place that her mum had gone away for work and so far every time she had ended up calling May asking to come over. Not that she had to ask. There was nothing that May wouldn't do for that girl. Which is why, when she asked to stay over for the night, May didn't hesistate to say yes.

"Oh of course sweetie. You don't need to ask just come on over. Your Mum working out of town again?"

"Yeah some big case in DC, she's going to be gone for at least a couple of days, maybe a week. She meant to call to let you know but it was so last minute she asked me to call you instead."

"I'm sure she'll call me later, she always does. Make sure you pack enough stuff for a week and bring Lottie with you, you're staying with me and Peter until your Mum comes back."

"Aunt May I can't-"

"Yes you can. I insist."

She heard Chrissie take in a deep breath ready to argue some more but May stopped her before she could continue.

"Chrissie I know what you're going to say but stop. I know you're 15 and you can look after yourself but you're my God Daughter and Peter's best friend, now that I know your Mum is out of town I won't feel comfortable unless I know that you are here with me, safe under my own roof. So grab your dog, hail a cab and get your ass over here."

There was a slight pause before Chrissie answered.

"I'll be there in 30 minutes."

"That's my girl!" May cheered causing Chrissie to laugh. "I'll see you in 30. When you get here you can help me make dinner. I've got a new recipe I'm dying to try and you are the perfect person to help me."

"Aunt May are you sure you just don't want me to stop and get take out? There's a great pizza place a block away from your building."

"Hey! This is going to be awesome ok. Just you wait and see!"

Chrissie laughed on the other end of the line.

"Ok Aunt May. I'll believe it when I see it."

"Well you better start believing young lady. Now enough of this talking. Get your stuff packed up and get your butt in a taxi!"

"Yes Ma'am!"

"And enough of the Ma'am. I expect to see you in 28 minutes. No later. Bye honey!"

"Bye Aunt May."

She grinned as the girl hung up, a slight skip in her step as she headed in to Chrissie's room to get everything ready.

After Ben had died both she and Peter had wanted to move out of their old appartment and away from the painful memories. They'd eventually moved in to a small 3 bedroom apartment only a couple of blocks away from Georgia's house.

It hadn't been cheap renting a 3 bedroom apartment in Queens.

She'd only just been able to afford it thanks to a friend of Georgia's who had agreed to give it to May at a discount rate. But both her and Georgia agreed that now the children were older seperate rooms were needed and Georgia helped by paying a third of the rent every month plus all of Chrissie's expenses. May had been totally against her doing so at first, insisting that she didn't need her friend's support, but once she realised how expensive the rent on the appartment was (even with the help of Georgia's friend) she reluctantly agreed.

Now that she and Peter had been in the appartment for almost a year she was glad that she'd agreed - although she would never tell Georgia that (even if she suspected that the other woman already knew).

Being in this appartment meant that she could have two of the most important people in her life under one roof and her best friend was only a couple of minutes away whenever she needed her. It made days like today when she missed Ben and she was worried about Peter (which only made her miss Ben more - he always knew what to do), just that little bit easier.

Shooting a quick text to her best friend to let her know that Chrissie was staying with her, May tucked her phone in to her back pocket as she began taking the extra bedding out of the airing cupboard in Chrissie's room, thinking about the night in she had planned with her God Daughter and the dinner she was planning to make.

And, for the briefest of moments, she was able to forget about all her worries over her nephew.

* * *

She was just smoothing out the wrinkles in Chrissie's sheets when there was a knock on the door. She frowned slightly and stared down at her watch. It had only been 15 minutes since she spoke to Chrissie and she knew it would take the girl at least 30 minutes to get Lottie ready and get a taxi to May's appartment. Plus both her and Peter had keys so neither of them would need to knock. But she was only expecting Chrissie so who else could it be?

Walking back out in to the front room, she headed towards the door and leaned down to reach for the baseball bat she kept by the front door - ever since Ben's death she'd been overly cautious about pretty much everything. Living in New York these days, having had the life experiences she'd had, it didn't hurt to take precautions.

But, thankfully, this time those precautions weren't needed - it was only Ned.

She left the bat where it was and swung the door open, greeting the boy cheerfully as he stood in the hallway, hands tightly clutching what looked like a half completed lego death star.

"Hi Mrs Peter...I mean Mrs Par..Parker.." The boy stuttered nervously and May couldn't help but smile at him. Ned had been friends with Peter and Chrissie since first grade...the exact same amount of time he'd had a crush on May - something the older woman found very endearing.

"It's just May Ned. You know that."

The boy nodded quickly and May found herself having to bite her lip to stop from laughing when she saw his face go bright red - probably at the idea of calling her May. All these years and he'd still not managed it, although the fact that he was able to talk to her at all, even if he couldn't look her directly in the eyes, was certainly some kind of progress.

"If you're here to see Peter he's not back from his internship at Stark industries yet."

Ned's head snapped up at that and the complete look of sadness in his eyes almost caused May's heart to break.

Seems like she wasn't the only one feeling a little neglected thanks to Peter's new internship.

"Oh ok I'll just-" Ned turned to leave but May called out stopping him before he'd got too far away. She would have put a hand out to stop him but she was afraid if she touched his arm the poor boy would combust.

"Ned wait! Chrissie is on her way over I'm sure she'd love to see you. And Peter's usually home by dinner time. You should stay and have dinner with us. Then you guys can all hang out and work on your death star together. What do you think?"

Ned looked like he was thinking about it for a minute before he nodded and turned back towards the appartment. May moved out of the way, letting the young man through and directing him to Peter's room where she thought he would feel more comfortable, offering him a drink while he waited.

"Could I...could I have a water please Mrs..Miss..I mean May...MAY!" He coughed slightly, his voice breaking a little as he talked to her. Again May found herself having to bite her lip to stop herself from smiling.

Ned and Peter both had this awkwardness about them that was just so cute but of course she couldn't say that. So instead of smiling and reaching over to pinch his cute little face like she wanted to she headed in to the kitchen to get him his drink.

As she was walking back to Peter's room she took her phone out of her back pocket and sent Chrissie a quick text just to let her know that Ned was there.

She thought about calling Peter, letting him know that his friends were both coming over, but she stopped herself from doing so. He'd told her before that he was so busy working on his internship that he never got a chance to check his phone so it was pointless trying to call or text him.

May sighed deeply.

 _God she really needed to have a word with that boy!_

 _This internship was an amazing opportunity for him but still. It was 7 O'Clock on a school night and he still wasn't home!_

Instead of hanging out with his friends building lego death stars or eating dinner with his family, like normal 15 year olds, he was out doing God knows what until all hours.

 _Well hell to that!_

She thought.

 _I'm the boy's Aunt. I'll call him whenever I feel like it. No crackpot inventor and his internship is going to stop me from...damn it voicemail._

"Peter. It's May. I don't know where you are or what time you're thinking of coming home but Chrissie and Ned are here. I'm trying out a new recipe and Ned's brought around his death star for the 3 of you to work on so it's going to be a good night...and your missing out on it." She paused and took a deep breath to calm herself down before continuing. "I know this internship is important to you but Peter, please, come home soon. I...we...we all miss you."


	2. Chapter 2

A/N ; Thank you to everyone who has read this story so far. I hope you like it.

Again I don't own anything except my OCs and the story line.

This is quite a long chapter but hopefully you enjoy it.

* * *

"Thanks for the lift Larry!"

Chrissie hopped out of the taxi which had pulled to a stop outside May's appartment block, her backpack in one hand and her overnight bag in the the ground below she could already see Ned sitting at Peter's desk tinkering away at the lego death star he'd been talking about non stop for the past week and she smiled.

From the back seat Lottie, her 8 month old black laborador puppy, let out a little yip to gain her attention.

Her mum had bought the puppy for her a couple of months ago after much begging and pleading from Chrissie - who (of course) got a little help from Peter and her amazing Aunt May. Both of them had helped her to convince Georgia that she was responsible enough to look after a puppy practically by herself.

The fact that she had gone out of her way to research taxi companies who catered to dog owners (God she loved New York!) so that she'd still be able to go to Aunt May's whenever needed without abandonning the dog had only worked in her favour.

"Ok, ok I got ya." Chrissie muttered, reaching out to pet the dog comfortingly as she clipped her lead back on to her collar.

The dog leaned in to her touch and Chrissie smilled as she heard the sound of Lottie's little tail thumping against the leather seats. Chrissie scratched behind her ears a little, and she laughed when the dog leaned in to the touch so much that she almost fell over, before lifting her out and placing her down on the sidewalk.

Once Lottie had sniffed around a little and figured out where she was she gave out a string of excited little barks before laying down at Chrissie's feet. The 15 year old had put a lot of hard work in to training her puppy and at 8 months old Lottie knew good things came to dogs who waited.

Chrissie closed the door behind them and waved good bye to Larry, her regular taxi driver, promising that the next time she saw him she would bring him a batch of her ginger cookies, before turning and heading towards her Aunt May's building.

Not wanting to carry her dog and her bags up the stairs and not wanting to bother Aunt May by asking her to come and help, Chrissie took a deep breath and pressed the button for the elevator. She hated any sort of confined space but on this occassion she was willing to put up with it if it meant she didn't have to climb mutliple flights of stairs with all of her stuff and an impatient and wiggly 8 month old puppy.

After a couple of seconds the elevator arrived and she stepped in, grabbing her bags and her dog, clutching the latter closely to her body for comfort, as she pressed the button for the 9th floor and the doors shut ominously behind her.

To take her mind off what was happening she thought about how excited she was to spend some time with her Aunt May - after all it had been almost 3 weeks since they had seen each other, which for them, was _ages_.

Usually they would see each other every single day.

She and Peter went to the same school so they would meet up at the subway station between their appartments every morning, get the train to school together, then in the evening get the subway back together, stopping at the deli on the corner before heading back to see Aunt May at their appartment. She'd stay there all night, hanging out with Peter (and sometimes Ned), talking with Aunt May and joining Peter in teasing her about her latest cooking disaster.

Later her Mum would show up either with take out or dinner reservations and, once they were all reasonably fed and entertained, she and her Mum would go home for the evening, only to repeat the same process all over again the next day.

But lately everything had changed.

All of a sudden Peter stopped meeting her before school.

The first couple of times she'd waited, figuring that maybe he was running late - like the time(s) that he tripped over his feet and hit his head against his bedroom wall and was late because he spent 20 minutes trying to convince Aunt May that he didn't have concussion.

But after he'd failed to show up on multiple occassions, after she'd called and texted asking where he was and got no response, after she'd called May to find out where he was and found out that he'd left early to get some work done at Stark Industries she realised that Peter had completely forgotten about her.

She'd tried bringing it up with him a few times at school but it was like he wasn't listening to her. There was clearly something more important on his mind because every second he was staring down at his phone like he was waiting for something, someone more important to talk to him.

One day when she'd finally gotten so angry that she ripped the phone out of his hand and demanded he looked at her he actually looked shocked and a little contrite before he shakily told her that he was sorry and that he was just waiting for Mr Stark to ring about his internship because Mr Stark told him that he needed to be ready whenever Mr Stark needed him.

He'd tried to pay a bit more attention to her after that but it had only lasted a day or so before he was back on his phone ignoring her again.

After that all he would talk about was _Mr Stark this_ and _Mr Stark that_

Chrissie wasn't afraid to say it - she outright hated the sound of that man's name!

And any mention of that cursed internship that Peter had got himself involved in!

First off she was hurt that he never told her about it. Even when he knew that she had applied for one with Stark industries herself and had been rejected she'd been hurt that he hadn't told her he'd applied. She had begged him to apply when she did but he always said no that he didn't want it, that it was her dream to work at Stark industries not his - yet somehow he'd applied for and accepted the internship without telling her a single word about it.

Maybe that's why he didn't tell her - because he thought she would be angry or feel jealous that he got something that she really wanted. Maybe that's why he decided to keep everything secret from her. Avoid her questions whenever she asked what he was working on, refuse to tell him anything about the people he worked with, why they were making him work such crazy hours, why May had told her that he came home most nights covered in bruises and that after his first (and only) bootcamp with Stark Industries he'd come back beaten black and blue by a guy called Steve.

 _Who in the hell takes a kid away for 3 days and returns them like they've gone 3 rounds with Captain America - Tony Stark that's who!_

That internship took over every part of Peters' life and all but pushed her completely out of it.

They had been best friends practically from the moment they were born. No one could ever deny that they were soulmates in the truest sense of the word. She was a part of him and he was a part of her. They were practically the same person and never, ever kept secrets from each other.

Of course they had their own little secrets, made up languages and inside jokes that no one else could understand but never would they keep something from each other, knowing each other so well it was practically impossible. Yet, here she found herself, being almost completely shut out by the one person in the world who possibly knew her better than she knew herself and all because of some secret he couldn't tell her. And that hurt, that hurt more than she could possibly put in to words.

Her best friend, who she did everything with, had suddenly disappeared from her life. He stopped going to all the after school clubs they went to together, even decathlon practice which had always been Peter's favourite - the others he only put up with so that he could stay with her and they could travel back to May's apartmentment together.

And that was another thing!

Now she had to walk home alone every day - not fun at the best of times but especially not cool when she was by herself carrying a tuba across town.

Not that she made Peter carry it for her all the same (although most days he would do so without her even asking) but there's no way you can't feel awkward on the subway, alone, carrying a tuba.

And the comments she got!

No one ever shouted out at her or gave her weird looks when Peter was around.

On one occasion someone had even thought she was a busker and had started berating her for using the subway to con people out of their money. That was also the same day she made $10 without even playing a note so it wasn't all bad but even still she didn't like it.

Especially when it rained.

That, however, was nothing compared to the nights she had to go home alone after decathlon practice.

Practice always went on late in to the night leaving her to walk by herself through some pretty sketchy parts of town. Ned had kindly volunteered to walk home with her but he lived in a completely different neighbourhood and she felt bad making him go out of his way. Not to mention he would then have to walk home through the same bad parts of town and she wasn't sure he would do much better than she would so she politely declined and opted to make her own way home, by herself, every evening.

She'd never been bothered by it before because she'd always had Peter, and on the occassions that they were coming too, Ned and MJ. Now she did it alone she was scared, but after a week of getting to and from school by herself she was confident that everything would be fine.

Until suddenly it wasn't.

* * *

She had been on her way home one night - thankfully without her tuba as it had been decathlon night. She was tired - all the late nights leading up to the decathlon meet and the whole situation with Peter had her dead on her feet. So she decided to take a shortcut, down an alley that was fine during the day but a complete no go at night. Only her worn out brain had completely forgot that - right up until the moment she felt a knife pressed against her throat and heard a rough voice demanding she handed over her money.

Chrissie had done so, hoping that would be the end of it, but the guys (because, of course, it required more than one to shake down a 15 year old girl) had started talking about all the things they would love to do to her.

The things they said truly make her stomach crawl - even now as she thought back on what had happened she felt a shudder go down her spine.

Not putting up a fight when they asked for her money was one thing - but this was something else entirely.

She had no idea how she managed it but she was able to pull herself away from the man holding the knife to her throat, and ran like hell.

They'd chased after her but thankfully she was quicker and managed to get far enough away that they couldn't keep up - never before had she been so happy that she had taken up cross country!

She'd managed to get away from them fairly easily but it was only later when the adrenaline wore off that she realised her attacker's knife had left a nasty cut on her neck. Luckily enough she'd been able to patch it up with no real fuss but she was fairly certain it would leave a scar.

The whole ordeal had left her shaken and she had been able to leave her house for days.

Her Mum had been out of town working so she had just called the school telling them that she had the flu. She told her Mum the same thing and thankfully both believed her. Peter must have too because he didn't call once to see how she was.

Aunt May had popped by one night to see how she was and to bring her soup but by that point the shock had mostly warn off and she was able to greet her Aunt without being a complete shaking mess. May had still known something was wrong, Chrissie could tell, but she must have just put it down to the fact that Chrissie still wasn't feeling well.

When her Mum came back a week after the attack, Chrissie had sat her down asked her if one of her Mum's drivers could take her to and from school every day.

Her Mum had been begging her for ages to use the car service provided to her by her law firm as she hated the idea of the two teens wandering the city by themselves. Chrissie knew her Mum would hate it even more if she'd known that Chrissie was out there by herself but she'd never had the courage to tell her. Chrissie knew the moment that she did her Mum would insist that she be driven everywhere to avoid situations like the one that had just happened to her but Chrissie had never wanted that. Her mum had tried on multiple occasions to persuade her but she always refused. She had even said they could pick up Peter too and go to Aunt May's house if she wanted them to but Chrissie had always replied with a firm no. He never said it but she knew it sometimes made Peter uncomfortable that she had so much money while he and Aunt May didn't. Plus it was their thing, hers and Peter's.

Even if they spent all day in class together and at lunch (which, to be honest, had been pretty standard for them since first grade) they would always spend the whole time riding the subway back home chatting about the things that they had done and all the awesome stuff they had planned. Ever since they convinced their parents they were grown up enough to use the subway by themselves they'd travelled to and from school together, their own little bit of well fought for independence. Giving up on that felt like giving up on their friendship.

She didn't want that - but after the last couple of weeks and that terrible night, she felt like she had no other choice.

Her Mum had been shocked and asked her what had inspired such a drastic change of heart but Chrissie was unable to tell her. It was like the words were trapped in her throat, begging to be said but she just couldn't. She couldn't tell her Mum that the boy she treated like a son had suddenly abandoned her daughter. Nor could she tell her the truth about what happened to her that night, knowing that he Mum would go in to complete panic mode and do something stupid - like move them to DC.

She'd been asking Chrissie it for ages, saying that her company had agreed to set her up in some nice little neighbourhood in the suburbs with a good school and a low crime rate. Neither one of them liked the idea of leaving New York, but with what had happened to Ben, Georgia was worried. Chrissie knew that if she told her what had happened she'd have them packed up and moved out before she could even say no. Chrissie didn't want that, she didn't want to leave her friends and family behind, not for anything.

Even if Peter was currently acting like a horse's ass.

And that was the worst part of this whole situation with Peter. She could overlook the lying to an extent - after all if he was keeping it a secret from her it must have been for a very, very good reason. And she knew Peter well enough to know that eventually he would spill the beans, to her at least. If he wanted to keep whatever this was a secret from her - fine. She wasn't happy about it and she would give him hell about it later but if he wanted to lie to her he could - because she always knew he'd tell her the truth eventually.

No the lying wasn't the worst part. The worst part was the way in which, in order to keep his lie from her, Peter had almost completely shut her out of his life. It had hurt more than words could say and to protect herself from that pain she had found herself doing the same - the unfortunate consequence of that being that she had also cut herself off from the other people that she loved, including Aunt May.

Ever since Peter took up the internship with Stark Industries, ever since he'd started lying to her and avoiding her she'd slowly been disconnecting himself from her to avoid further pain. She thought he'd might notice and pull her on it but the boy was so oblivious to anything other than his internship and the secrets he was keeping from her.

He hadn't even noticed when she stopped calling him in the morning to find out where he was. He hadn't noticed that in class she stopped trying to sit next to him or pairing up with him to be his lab partner because every time he did he would just ignore her. He hadn't noticed that at lunch she would prefer sitting next to MJ or Ned rather than him - because most days his head was buried in his phone. Either that or he just wasn't there.

He didn't notice when the final bell rang at the end of the school day that she no longer asked him what sandwich he was going to get that day from the deli or what lego kit he and Ned were working on because he'd either skip last period or be out the door before she could even say a word. Slowly she had gone from best friend for life to barely an acquaintance and he hadn't noticed.

Ned and MJ had, so had Liz and the girls from the decathlon team who she'd hung out with a few times after school. They'd tried to talk to her about it but she couldn't do it. How could she explain to them the type of connection her and Peter had - and what it felt like when he was not there anymore?

How could she explain how she felt when the only person who fully understood acted like she no longer existed.

She'd wanted to speak to her Mum about it, she'd know exactly what to say, she always did - her, May, Peter and Ben had been the only people in her life he understood her completely, and she knew, without a doubt her Mum would know what to say to make her feel better. But she couldn't find the words to explain what was happening between her and Peter.

The situation was only made worse by the fact that her Mum had picked up this new high profile case she barely saw her. Sometimes Chrissie would wake up to the sound of her Mum coming back home in the early hours of the morning and wake up to find that her Mum had already gone, the breakfast on the table and the note saying she loved her being the only evidence that she'd even come home.

This had been the third time in as many months that she'd had to go out of state to work on the case - and this hadn't been the first time it had been for longer than a day. She'd only been back at home this time for 10 days before she woke up this morning to find an apple on the kitchen table with a note attached saying she'd be in DC and that Chrissie should let Aunt May know it may be a while.

After her attack she'd only found it harder to tell her Mum what was going on - fearing that her Mum would blame Peter for what had happened and not allow them to see each other anymore. Even when she and Peter were barely friends she was still looking out for him. She held on to the hope that this entire situation would eventually blow over and they'd be back to normal. When that happened she didn't want her Mum hating Peter, or blaming him for what had happened. So instead she chose to say nothing rather than say anything that might make her Mum think badly of Peter.

Even if she could somehow find the right words without getting Peter in to trouble, she hadn't seen her Mum for more than a couple of minutes at a time since this case began and from the sound of things it was only going to get worse as the case got closer and closer to trial.

MJ's mum, who worked at the same law firm, had heard rumours that once it went to trial everyone involved would have to stay in DC until it was over and there was no way of knowing how long the case would last for. Chrissie hated the idea that her Mum may be going away for such a long time - almost as much as she hated the way things were now, living in the same house but passing by each other like ships in the night.

Chrissie hadn't told anyone about this whole situation with Peter and her Mum, she hadn't even told Aunt May that her Mum was considering moving them to DC. She just didn't want to upset anyone and she didn't know how or what to say without causing pain to those she loved. So Chrissie just kept it all bottled up and it was really, really beginning to mess with her mind.

Now that she wasn't coming back to Aunt May's with Peter anymore she was spending most nights at home, alone, not seeing another person until she got to school the next morning. The isolation was driving her mad - it was part of the reason why she fought so hard to get a dog, to have someone else to talk to and to keep her company in that large house while her Mum was away and her best friend continued to avoid her calls.

A part of her knew that this wasn't healthy, that she should just talk to someone - that she should just confront Peter and beg him to come back to her, to be her friend again but the longer it went on for the harder she found it to say anything. In her darkest hours the thought of it made her laugh a little. All she wanted was someone to talk to, to get her best friend back, but she couldn't find the words to say, so she didn't talk to her friend and found herself, yet again, alone thinking about how she wished she wasn't alone.

She didn't want to be alone, to be without Peter, but she hated the idea of being completely rejected by him so she pushed him and the people associated with him away and ended up alone again, with no one to talk to about how crazy this situation was making her feel.

 _Talk about a self fulfilling prophecy!_

Chrissie had tried to break the cycle once. She'd wanted to tell her Aunt May about it, tell her how she missed her and that she needed help do get out of this pit of despair she'd created for herself. She'd knew that Aunt May had known something wasn't right the very first night she hadn't come home with Peter but Chrissie was still trying to figure it all out herself, she wasn't quite sure what to say, or if she even wanted to say anything at all.

By the time that she had decided she wanted to it was too late, yet again she found it impossible to get the words out. She couldn't figure out quite how to tell her wonderful Aunt May how dark and twisted her thoughts had become over the past couple of months.

It hurt to imagine telling her how bad things had become and how, now her Mum was working all the time and Peter wasn't talking to her she felt lost and alone. For the first time in her life she'd found herself feeling less than 100% comfortable in Aunt May's presence, her home had always been Chrissie's home too - but was also Peter's and the way things were right now that just made things too weird for her.

She'd been about to tell her about it a few weeks ago when she'd gotten home to find out that her Mum had been called last minute to go to DC. After what had happened there was no way that she wanted to be alone but she also knew that May would take one look at her face and know that something wasn't right. She was already suspicious enough, figuring out that Chrissie's "flu" was just a little more than she was making it out to be, Chrissie was sure once she was with her Aunt May for more than a minute she'd know something was going on.

Chrissie was right, the second she was through the door May was asking questions, but before she could open her mouth to say anything Peter came crashing in muttering something about wanting to go to bed early and no so subtly limping his way to his bedroom, wincing slightly when he had to use his obviously bruised wrist to open the door, slamming it firmly shut behind him before throwing himself on to his bed with a thump so loud they could hear it from the other room.

Even if she had wanted to say anything to May, quite rightly after what they had seen all her attention was on Peter.

Within seconds May had rushed off to his room to help him while Chrissie waited on the sofa, channel surfing until Aunty May came back.

In any other situation she would have been straight up, looking after Peter and demanding to find out whose arse she needed to kick but she just couldn't find it in herself to go. After all she knew he'd just deny everything and tell her to leave it alone, same as always when she tried to talk to him these days, so why bother.

Let Aunty May deal with it - who knows he might actually tell her the truth, which was slightly better than him lying to everyone about what the hell was going on. Because, to her anyway, it was clear that whatever secret he was hiding from her, he was hiding it from Aunt May too.

It had been about half an hour, she could hear the voices back and forth coming from Peter's room, before Aunt May gave up and came back in to the living room, a fretful look on her face as she lifted Chrissie's legs and sat down in her normal position, the younger girl's feet in her lap as she stared blankly at the TV in front of her.

They'd remained silent for a couple of moments before Aunt May finally told her what was going really on. It was then she found out that this had not been the first time Peter had come home injured. And that even when he appeared to be beaten black and blue the boy was still sneaking out of the apartment at all hours doing God knows what. May had tried to talk to him about it but he would only ever tell her that it was about his May tried to dig deeper he'd close himself off, become defensive, almost to the point of aggression and May would back off, too concerned to say anything else about it, yet too worried to let it go completely.

Chrissie couldn't say that she was overly surprised that all this was going on. After all she'd caught glimpses of him looking entirely worse for wear at school and had questioned him about it only to get the same reaction but she didn't want to tell Aunt May that.

Instead she listened as May told her about what had been going on with Peter and how worried she was for her nephew and how upset she was that he kept sneaking out at night and lying to her about everything. It was then that Chrissie realised she couldn't say anything to May.

Her beloved Aunt had already been through enough, losing her brother and sister in law only to then lose her one true love Ben. It had only been a year since Ben had so brutally been taken from her, from them - Chrissie didn't want to add to her pain by telling her what had happened. Especially when she admitted that she had found herself in a life or death situation in an alley not far away from where Ben had died.

Chrissie didn't want to add to Aunt May's suffering, no matter how much she may have needed her guidance and support at that moment. Aunt May already had enough to deal with, she'd been there for Chrissie her whole life, it was time Chrissie put her problems aside and was there for Aunt May for once.

So she held her tongue and listened, knowing in that moment she was doing the right thing for her Aunt - even if it wasn't totally the right thing for her.

 _Besides, with any luck Peter would get his head out of his ass sooner rather than later and once her Mum's case was over with they could all get back to normal._

 _Yes._

She thought confidently hugging Lottie closer to her and snuggling her face in to her soft fur as the voice in the elevator told her that she had reached the 9th floor.

 _Everything would be just fine. She just needed to have a little patience._

* * *

As the doors slowly opened and Chrissie left the elevator she felt her phone vibrating in her back pocket. Now they were no longer in the terrifying elevator of doom Chrissie felt safe enough to put Lottie down on the floor so that she could reach in to her pocket and see who it was.

 _ **Hey Chrissie Bear. FYI Ned's here. Still waiting on Peter :( x Aunt May**_

"Of course he's not here yet." She muttered to herself, smiling a little when Lottie let out a little huff of annoyance.

It was probably because the dog knew she was so close to getting hugs and treats from Aunt May and Chrissie's hanging around was stopping that but she liked to think that Lottie was agreeing with her that Peter's constant tardiness was more than a little annoying.

Although with him running late and Ned waiting for him to work on the death star it might give her the time to talk to Aunt May. Maybe not about what was going on with her and Peter but at least to let her know about how busy her Mum was.

 _That wouldn't be too much right?_

Chrissie felt her phone buzz in her hand and couldn't help but laugh at the message from her Aunt.

 _ **You've got less than 2 minutes, your ass better be getting off that elevator ASAP. Don't make me come and find you :P fyi next time call me to come get you. Everyone knows you hate elevators you silly girl! Love you 3**_

Chrissie shook her head as she made her way down the narrow hallway towards Aunt May's appartment. Lottie was eagerly pulling ahead of her, something that Chrissie would usually tell the young pup off for but today even she was overly excited to see May.

She'd barely made it to the door when it was suddenly thrown open and she found herself being violently hugged by Aunt May.

"Oh my sweet girl I have missed you!" She told her loudly, squeezing Chrissie tighter and tighter with every word. Chrissie found herself hugging May back just as tightly, glad to be back in the arms of the woman who had practically raised her for the first time in weeks.

Suddenly Aunt May pulled back and held her face gently but securely in both hands, turning her head from side to side as she observed her.

"Let's get a proper look at you then. I can't believe how much you have changed in 3 weeks. Is that an extra freckle on your nose?"

Chrissie couldn't help but giggle and start to blush causing Aunt May to laugh and kiss her lightly on the cheek, before letting go of her face.

"Ah there's that beautiful blush I love. God it's fun making you teens go red. You should've seen Ned's face earlier! I thought he might explode! Never mind. I'll tell you all about it later."

Taking Lottie's lead off her, she quickly petted the eagerly awaiting dog before taking Chrissie's hand and pulling her in to the appartment, only barely giving Chrissie enough time to pull the door shut behind her.

"Now you're here we can make a start on dinner! We're making turkey meatloaf with vegetables. You're going to love it. Don't pull that face young lady, it's nutricious and it's going to taste awesome. I guarantee it. Your room is all made up, so's Lottie's bed"

The dog barked at the sound of her name and May immediately went to pet her behind the ears, causing Lottie to break out in a slobbery grin.

Chrissie couldn't help but smile at the two of them - she was in no doubt that May was Lottie's favourite, after all she was the one who always gave her treats and rubbed her belly whenever she wanted it. Chrissie was just the one who trained her and looked after her and made sure she generally just stayed alive - there really was no contest.

May continued petting Lottie for a few seconds before turning her attention back to Chrissie.

"Peter's still not back yet. I've left him a message to let him know that you are staying and that Ned's here too. He'd usually back in time for dinner around 8 but I'm never entirely sure about that boy and his timekeeping on a good day, with this internship all bets off when it comes to home time."

May frowned slightly, the worry on her face suddenly making her look 10 years older.

Chrissie could tell that she was worrying about Peter again and not for the first time that day cursed Stark and his stupid internship. And Peter - although she hated to admit that she blamed him in any way for this situation.

She was about to say something to make her feel better when May seemed to pull herself out of her thoughts and the frown disappeared almost as quickly as it came.

"Why don't you put your stuff in your room, say hi to Ned and then come out and help me with dinner. The recipe I got off the internet says that it shouldn't take to long to prep so you and Ned can work on the death star together while it's in the oven and when Peter gets back he can join you."

Chrissie tried to keep her face neutral, she really did, but May was so good at reading her that even trying to show no emotion at all at the mention of her best friend's name was like a red rag to a bull.

Immediately the look of concern was back and this time Chrissie felt worse because she was the one who put it there.

"Is something going on - between you and Peter? You've not been here for weeks. When I spoke to your Mum the other day she said you've started taking the car home rather than riding the subway with Peter. I tried asking Peter what was going on but doesn't tell me anything these days. I thought you'd be dying to spend a little time outside school with him now that he's away working on his internship so often, but when I said his name just then it was like you wanted to be anywhere else apart from here. Has something happened?"

Chrissie sighed and shifted uncomfortably, not entirely sure what to say.

May's eyes widened in shock.

"Something has happened hasn't it?! That's why you've stopped coming over, why you're so upset all the time...oh don't look so surprised I notice these things I always have. So come on tell me, what's that boy done this time? It must have been something massive to keep it from me, to make you feel so uncomfortable in your own home. So come on spill."

Chrissie looked her Aunt May in the eyes and she just knew that she wasn't going to let this go.

"Aunt May, it's not what you think he hasn't-"

"AAAHHH!"

Chrissie was cut off by the sound of Ned's high pitched screams followed by Lottie's insistant barking, they'd been so wrapped up in their conversation that the little puppy had wandered off to seek attention elsewhere and had stumbled across an unsuspecting Ned - the same Ned who did not like dogs.

She rolled her eyes and made her way towards Peter's bedroom where Ned was currently calling for anyone to save him from the vicious beast who was currently trying to maul him. She'd only made it half a step when Aunt May grabbed her gently by the wrist causing Chrissie to turn back and look at her questioningly.

"This conversation isn't over. Go rescue Ned, hang out with him for a while...spend some time with him working on the death star. I'll sort out dinner. I can see it in your eyes you need to take a step back, spend some time with someone other than me before we continue our conversation. But whatever this is...whatever had happened with Peter, we _will_ be discussing this, you and I later tonight. Alright?"

Chrissie tensed a little at the idea of it but eventually nodded.

After all Aunt May was right, she could only keep things from Aunt May for so long and surely she would feel better about everything once she told someone - _wouldn't she?_

May smiled slightly and leaned forward to kiss her on the forehead.

"Good girl. We'll get this all sorted out - you'll see. "

May quickly let go of her hand and gave her a playful nudge towards Peter's room.

"Now go save Ned before someone calls the police thinking we're torturing a 5 year old girl in our appartment."


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Thank you again to all those reading this story. Same as before I only own the OCs and the story line. I hope you enjoy it! :)

* * *

The sight before her when Chrissie entered Peter's room was nothing short of comical.

On the floor, crouched in a playful position, tail wagging happily as she barked at the object of her interest was Lottie - obviously wondering why this new human wasn't willing to play with her and kept making such horrible noises.

The new human in question - Ned- had scrabbled up on to the top bunk of Peter's bed and had pressed himself against the wall brandishing Peter's old stuffed rabbit, waving it at her as he threatened to use it violently against her.

Chrissie just leaned against the door frame for a moment, watching with amusement wishing that she hadn't left her phone on the kitchen table so that she could record this moment and replay it to MJ over and over again. She would just have to hope that her memory of the event would do it justice.

With Aunt May's words in mind Chrissie savoured the moment for a little bit longer before intervening.

"You do realise that by waving a toy at her she thinks that you are playing."

"I'm not waving a toy at it I'm trying to stop it from from eating me! What the hell is it doing in here anyway!"

Chrissie bristled slightly at the way that Ned was talking about her dog, all amusement in her tone and on her face gone as she glared directly as him.

 _She knew Ned didn't like dogs but to call her baby an "it" was just so wrong on so many levels!_

"She is my dog and this is her home. Treat us both with a little respect and stop referring to her as an it!"

Chrissie snapped and immediately Ned lowered the stuffed rabbit, a look of shame crossing his face.

She rarely ever snapped at anyone, and never at him, so he knew that despite his fears he had crossed a very definite line, one he needed to apologise for as soon as possible.

 _"_ I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be rude. What is it...I mean HER! What is her name?"

Chrissie reached down and picked Lottie up off the ground, petting her lightly on the head in an effort to calm her down, and sure enough, within a couple of seconds she'd stopped barking.

"Her name is Lottie."

"That's...th-that's a nice name."

Chrissie sighed, all anger forgotten at the sound of Ned's shaking voice. Now she just felt bad for snapping at him.

It wasn't his fault that he was scared of dogs. She'd known he was in the appartment and that he didn't like dogs but hadn't kept a close enough eye on Lottie. As a result she'd gotten away and done what all puppies did - went to find the nearest person to play with. She didn't know that Ned was afraid of dogs.

Neither one of them were to blame for this. She should have been a responsible dog owner and made sure she had her eyes on the adventurous puppy at all times.

"I'm sorry Ned I shouldn't have shouted at you. I'm just very protective of her. You understand?"

Ned nodded slightly and Chrissie smiled, grateful that he no longer seemed so scared of her or Lottie.

She imagined that it had something to do with the fact that the puppy was now happily dozing in her arms, lulled in to sleep by Chrissie's constant petting. The puppy didn't look nearly as intimidating when she was making little snuffling noises in her sleep.

Slowly, Ned edged off the bed and towards the two of them, a look of cautious curiosity on his face as he stared at the puppy.

"You know she's not so scary when she's not barking." He admitted sheepishly, tentatively moving closer and closer towards them. "It's the barking I don't like, the loud noises and the teeth...oh the teeth!"

He jumped back a little, the fear creeping back in to his eyes for a fraction of a second until Lottie snorted lightly, her little paws twitching ever so slightly in her sleep, and all of a sudden the look of fear was gone.

"She's actually quite cute. Can I...do you think I can pet her?"

Chrissie smiled at her friend and inched closer to him so that he could pet the dog in her arms.

"Of course you can, in fact I think she'll love it. All she wanted was your attention, you pet her and she'll love you forever."

Ned looked at her for a second, not quite sure he believed her, before hesistantly reaching out and stroking the puppy's soft fur. Lottie lazily opened one eye to look at him, before lifting her head, licking his hand a little, then resting her head on his hand.

Ned just looked at her in amazement, in that moment Chrissie knew that they'd taken steps to get him over his fear of dogs.

Before she knew it Ned was excitedly asking her if he could hold the dog. She agreed and transferred the sleepy puppy in to his eager arms where he'd immediately started talking to Lottie like she was his new best friend.

It was kind of cute but Chrissie figured she best reign it in a little once he started suggesting that he could rename her star lord and make her tiny little jedi costumes so she could feature in his next star wars fan film.

"Speaking of Star Wars - Aunt May said you brought over your lego death star."

Ned's eyes widened with excitement and he quickly deposited Lottie on the ground next to him in favour of heading towards Peter's bed where the partially completed death star was waiting.

Lottie looked a little put out by the sudden movement but once she realised this new human was moving towards the comfy bed she just followed, jumped up on to the bed, curled herself up in to a ball and went back to sleep.

Chrissie knew that Peter would hate that - for some reason he and Lottie just didn't get on, but given their current friendship status she couldn't quite find it in her to care.

Instead she turned all of her attention to Ned and the death star currently in his hands.

"I've been working on it all week but I thought that you and Peter might like to help me with it. Then, when we're done, we can finally make that movie we've been talking about."

The movie was more Peter and Ned's idea but she was more than happy to help out so the two of them quickly got to work puting it together.

* * *

They worked largely in silence for almost 30 minutes, the only sound being Lottie's light snoring and the odd occassional request for a certain piece of lego between the two of them, before Ned called out her name.

"Yes Ned?"

"Do you think you and Peter will ever go back to the way you were before?"

Chrissie sucked in a deep breath and stopped what she was doing to look at him.

She could see from the way that he was specifically not looking at her, his entire attention focused on the death star in front of him, that this was something he wanted to discuss with her for a while but didn't feel comfortable asking her outright.

Chrissie sighed deeply before turning her attention back to the death star, deciding like Ned that it was easier to focus on that then to look him in the eye as she told him the truth.

 _It was sure staring to look like she would be having more than one conversation about this topic tonight._

"I don't know Ned. Things with Peter and I - they're complicated."

"Because of this whole internship thing?"

She nodded slowly as she fixed another piece to the structure.

"I miss him too you know. We all do. I know that it's different for you because you two have had this crazy soulmate connection type thing since you were babies but I miss him. Mostly I miss the way we would all hang out together. We don't do that any more not with Peter rushing off everywhere and you..."

Ned stopped himself from saying anything more but Chrissie knew what he meant.

"And me distancing myself from everyone because of Peter?" She added for him and he nodded, his face blushing slightly from embarrassment. "It's fine Ned. I know that's what I'm doing and I am sorry that it is hurting the rest of you. I don't mean to. You know I love you guys, it's just hard you know."

Ned nodded again, he did know, after all he was Peter's other best friend and Peter's behaviour had hurt him just as much, if anyone had any idea what you were feeling it would be Ned.

"He's hiding something from us Ned. I know it. I also know that is why he's cutting himself off from me because he knows that I know he'd hiding something from me and he doesn't want me working it out. And that hurts more than you can ever imagine Ned. Peter has never lied to me about anything before, and now...now he does nothing but lie to me and he tries to cover that up by ignoring me and pushing me away. He's so focused on keeping whatever this is a secret and keeping it away from me that I don't even think he realises what he's doing. Whatever he's hiding, it's linked to this internship I know it and it is like...it's like it's consuming him. It's changing him in to something else, and he's letting it...sometimes..."

She paused, stopping for a moment to stare at the lego piece in her hand, as she tried to think of the right words to convey what she felt about this whole situation.

"Sometimes I look at him and he is not the boy I grew up with, he's not even the man I thought he would be, he's this entirely new Peter and I look at him and think - what happens when this new Peter wakes up and realises he doesn't need me at all anymore? To look at the face of the person who I love entirely and realise that he doesn't need me..."

Ned flinched slightly, his face sombre as a feeling of dread settled in his stomach. He'd noticed the way that Peter had been treating her recently. Ned had even tried calling him out on it a few times but Peter had been completely oblivious, telling him he was over exaggerating. With Chrissie spending less time with him lately Ned was beginning to think maybe Peter was right - but he was wrong, oh so wrong. Things were far worse than Ned could ever had imagined.

There was a sense of sadness about her that he hadn't really noticed until now, a fragility that he had never associated with his tough as nails friend. But the look in her eyes, the pain in her voice when she spoke about Peter, told Ned everything he needed to know.

This issue between her and Peter - it was killing her.

* * *

The two fell in to an uncomfortable silence as Ned watched her with a look of concern, fully realising for the first time the impact that this situation was having on Chrissie.

He was about to reach out and touch her hand to gain her attention, to talk to her more about it, when she suddenly shook herself out of it.

"Well that's enough of that, Peter will soon sort himself out. Realise that telling me the truth is the best option and then all of this will just be a bad memory."

Ned nodded solomnly but he couldn't help but wonder what would happen, to Chrissie and their group of friends if it didn't.

Before he could say anything more about it, there was a nock on the door.

They both jumped slightly at the loudness of it before turning to see Aunt May leaning against the door frame.

"Sorry to interrupt but I was hoping to borrow Chrissie for a bit. Things are not turning out quite as expected with the turkey meatloaf."

Suddenly the smoke alarm went off and May winced.

"Please, I really need your help." She shot Chrissie a look of sympathy, the smell of smoke and burning plastic quickly filling the apartment.

The younger girl sighed and rolled her eyes a little before getting up off the floor and following her Aunt May back in to the kitchen.

She'd only been gone a couple of seconds when suddenly she was back again calling his name.

"Ned?"

"Yeah?"

"Thank you for being such a good friend to me."

"Ditto good buddy!" He replied, and internally groaned.

 _Why did he do this to himself?!_ He thought but she just chuckled lightly which made him feel slightly better about it.

"I mean it Ned. I know things have been a little crazy between us lately and we've not been as close as usual but I just want you to know no matter what happens between me and Peter, you and MJ will always be my closest friends. Got that?"

"Got it. Thanks Chrissie!"

She shot him a quick thumbs up, which he returned before rushing back out in to the kitchen shouting at May over the constant beeping of the fire alarm to back away from the oven and to get the fire extinguisher from under the sink.

The fire alarm stopped not long after only to be replaced by the sound of the two women playfully squabbling over May's latest cooking disaster.

No matter what happened between Peter and Chrissie and least Ned knew nothing between her and May had changed!

He chuckled slightly at their behaviour as he got up off the floor and turned to sit next to the sleeping puppy, with his death star in his hands.

Looking at the clock on the wall he noticed it was almost 8 O'Clock - if May was correct Peter should be coming home soon.

 _Maybe then while they were finishing the death star he could talk to Peter about what was going on - it seemed to work well enough with Chrissie._

A sudden thought hit Ned and with a wide eyed look of wonder he looked down at the death star in his hands.

 _Maybe the death star had magical powers - like the talking stick they used to use during circle time when they were in kindergarten and wanted to talk about their feelings!_

 _Whoever held the death star would be compelled to talk about what they were feeling, he just needed Peter to hold the magical death star then he could sort this whole thing out and everything would go back to normal - just like he and Chrissie wanted it to!_

 _It was the perfect idea - and from the way that Lottie snuffled in her sleep she seemed to agree with it._

Satisfied he'd come up with a solution Ned settled back and waited for Peter to arrive, holding the magical death star in his hands, ready and waiting to fix his friend's issues.

That's when he saw him.

Spiderman was crawling across the ceiling of Peter's room, taking off his mask and...

 _Oh no..._

Ned blinked a couple of times, not able to believe what he was seeing.

But then when Spiderman turned around and saw Ned sitting on the bed and Ned saw that Spiderman was actually Peter _freaking_ Parker, he knew for certain that he wasn't seeing things.

And after that the magical death star of truth was no more.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N : Thank you to everyone who has read this story. A big thank you also to those who reviewed, this is the first time I have written in a long while so it was nice to get some feedback. My writing style has changed quite a bit so to see that people enjoy this story as much as I enjoy writing it is really uplifting. I hope you enjoy this chapter, it centres around the scene from the film which inspired this story so it's quite a special chapter for me. I hope you like it :)

* * *

He'd been so certain when he'd sneaked back in to his room that no one was would see him that to see Ned sitting there, death star in hand, staring wide eyed back at him had been such a shock to Peter.

 _Oh God! This couldn't be happening. Not today - he wasn't ready yet! He had all these plans about how he was going to tell people (way, way in the future) and now..._

He made a move towards Ned, to somehow explain to him without actually telling him the truth but before he could make a sound Ned had accidentally dropped his lego death star. There was no way Peter could have stopped it in time and the loud crashing sound it made as it fell to the floor was quite easily the worst sound he had heard in a long time because he knew there was no way in hell that his Aunt May would not have heard it.

"What was that!" She called out.

 _Damn it he was right!_

Peter's eyes went wide as he turned to face the door, calling back out to her in the hopes that if he answered quickly enough that she wouldn't come looking.

As soon as his back was turned, Lottie (who had been woken up by the loud noises), saw him, and knowing that she shouldn't have been on his bed, scurried off to hide away under the bed from the strange smelling human who would never play with her. Content she wouldn't get in to any trouble she curled up in a ball and went back to sleep more concerned about chasing rabbits than wondering what the two boys were up to and whether or not the new one would play with her.

Ned, who was still in a state of shock, was completely oblivious to anything other than the fact that his friend, Peter Parker was Spiderman - _the_ Spiderman.

"You're the Spiderman, from Youtube."

 _Damn it he's not letting this go!_

Peter panicked and immediately undid the suit, trying to convince Ned that he wasn't who he very clearly was. He knew it was a long shot, but he also knew that Ned couldn't keep a secret to save his life and he just had to try!

"You were on the ceiling!"

 _Oh God!_

"No I wasn't. Ned what are you doing in my room!" He asked pointedly, a little annoyed that his friend was just sitting there waiting for him. After all he wouldn't have to be explaining the fact that he was or wasn't Spiderman if Ned hadn't invaded his privacy like this!

 _And, from the looks of things rearranged his furniture!_

Peter thought as he stepped out of the suit and scrabbled around trying to distance himself from Spiderman and get himself in to some proper clothes as soon as possible. Maybe if he did that, proved to Ned that he was still Peter Parker then he could convince him that he wasn't Spiderman.

But the only thing that he could find in his blind panic was an old sweatshirt gray sweatshirt and not a single pair of pants in sight.

 _May must have come in and cleaned his room again!_

 _Oh God this was not going well!_

"May let me in. You said we were going to finish the death star!"

You can't just bust in to my room-"

* * *

Peter could have quite happily curled up in to a ball and died rather than hear the sound of his door opening at that moment.

He'd made a move to jump behind Ned to at least try and cover himself a bit from his Aunt's view but she was quicker than he anticipated. Now here he was standing in his room next to his best friend in nothing but his boxers as his Aunt rambled on about Turkey meatloaf.

This of course being on top of the horror of Ned finding out he was Spiderman so pretty much all in all making the last minute or so of his life absolute hell.

A hell which Aunt May wanted to elongate by asking Ned out to dinner with them.

 _No, no way that just gave him more opportunity to ask stupid questions, no it wasn't happening._

He had to stop this before Ned inadvertently outed him as Spiderman to Aunt May.

Ned had barely (and very dreamily Peter noticed) told Aunt May that yes he would like to torture Peter more by going to get Thai food when Peter jumped in and immediately declined the invitation for him by saying he had "a thing."

He could see by the look in Aunt May's eyes that she didn't entirely believe he had "a thing" but (thank God!) she went along with it anyway.

"Ok."

Peter breathed a slight sigh of relief.

"But maybe put on some clothes."

 _Damn, he'd been so close._

He nodded sheepishly and pulled Ben's old gray sweatshirt off the back of his chair. Now that he wasn't so panicked he was a little surprised to see it there as that was the one that Chrissie used whenever she stayed over. Maybe Aunt May had left it there by mistake when she was cleaning earlier, right now he wasn't that bothered, he'd wear a tutu if it meant he was no longer standing, practically naked, between his Ned and his Aunt May.

* * *

The door had barely shut behind her when Ned exclaimed loudly and Peter's panic set back in again.

"She doesn't know!"

"Nobody knows! Well Mr Stark knows because he made my suit but that's it." He amended quickly throwing on the sweatshirt, more certain than ever now that he could smell it that it was Chrissie's, he just figured that she must have left it here the last time she stayed. He shrugged slightly, not that big of a deal.

She was always stealing his clothes, she wouldn't mind if he did the same. Plus he'd make sure to wash it before she came over so she'd never even know.

"Mr Stark made you that?! Are you an Avenger?"

Ned's question made Peter stop what he was doing and turn to look at him with a slight smug look on his face.

"Yeah basically."

Ned reached out to the bed behind him, using that to steady him following the shocking revelation that his best friend was an Avenger.

 _This was so much more than he was expecting when he'd come over with the death star! God wait until he told everyone!_

"You can't tell anyone about this."

Ned's face fell.

 _Wait...what?_

"You have to keep it a secret." Peter insisted.

"But why?"

"Because you know what she's like! She finds out people are trying to kill me every single night she won't let me do this any more! Come on Ned please!"

Ned knew he was seriously stressing out about this, his voice only got that high and squeaky these days when he was really, really nervous. Because of that Ned knew how desperately his friend wanted to keep this a secret but at the same time...

 _This was the most awesome thing he had ever heard!_

"Ok Ok Ok. I'll level with you. I can't keep this a secret! This is the greatest thing that's ever happened to me Peter."

"May cannot know." Peter insisted, a tinge of anger strengthening his voice that had not been there previously. What he asked of his friend before was a request, this right here, was a straight out demand.

May could never, _ever_ know about this. Not only would she freak out and tell him to stop but she'd tell Chrissie too or she'd blackmail him in to stopping by telling him that she'd tell Chrissie or - even worse still - she would tell Chrissie to stay away, keep them away from each other until he stopped out of fear she would be hurt.

Chrissie hadn't told him yet but he'd heard from MJ that Georgia had been offered a position in DC, with an even bigger salary and a nice house in a good neighbourhood. He'd heard Aunt Georgia telling May all about it a couple of months ago, asking his Aunt what she should do. May had convinced her that the two of them moving away would be a bad idea, that they were each other's support systems and that they worked better together than apart. Georgia had agreed but with the amount of time she was out of town lately Peter could tell that it was only a matter of time before she tried to convince Chrissie to leave.

He knew his Aunt May loved him like any doting Aunt loved her nephew but Chrissie was the closest thing she and Uncle Ben had had to a daughter, there was nothing May wouldn't do to protect her and Peter had always loved her for that. If May found out he was Spiderman, and that by association he might be putting Chrissie in danger, she wouldn't hesitate to tell her to move to DC and cut off all communication with him until he stopped his web slinging ways.

 _No - that couldn't happen no matter what the cost._

May could not find out he was Spiderman. He needed to do everything he could possibly do to avoid that situation - which meant, relying on the one thing he really didn't want to rely on right now, but he knew was his only shot - Ned's sympathy over the death of his Uncle Ben.

"I can't do that to her right now. You know with everything that's happened with her. Please."

"Ok."

Peter closed his eyes in relief, he felt awful for going that far but it needed to be done, he needed Ned to understand the seriousness of what he was asking him to do, the secret he needed to keep.

"You swear it ok?"

"I swear."

"Thank you."

The two shared a look for a brief moment before Peter finally moved away, running his hands through his hair, suddenly exhausted as the events of today finally caught up with him.

"God I can't believe this is happening right now."

"Can I try on the suit on?"

"No."

"How does it work - is it magnets? How do you shoot the strings?"

"I'm going to tell you about this at school ok?"

"Awesome. Hey has Chrissie tried to suit on because if she has I totally want a go."

Peter sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose in exasperation.

"Ned I just told you no one else knows."

Ned rolled his eyes.

 _How stupid did Peter think he was?!_

"Yeah no one else knows - except you, Chrissie, Mr Stark and now me."

Peter shook his head vehemently, the mere thought of Chrissie knowing making him break out in to a cold sweat.

"No, no. Chrissie knows nothing about this - she can ever know about this. Swear it Ned, same as you swore not to tell Aunt May I need you to swear to me right now you won't tell Chrissie."

Ned chuckled slightly.

"Now I know you're messing with me there's no way you've not told..."

Seeing the look on Peter's face, Ned's smile immediately fell away.

He stared wide eyed at his best friend with a mixture of shock and horror.

"You've not told Chrissie! Are you _insane_!"

Ned yelled so loudly that Peter was sure the entire block heard him.

"Would you shut up already?!"

"No Peter no. Not about this no. How could you -how could you not tell Chrissie you were Spiderman! You two never keep secrets from each other! You're practically the same person it would be like...it would be like keeping a secret from yourself...she's going to be so pissed when she...oh!"

Peter did not like the sound of that "oh" or the look on Ned's face when he said it - like he'd suddently worked something out and whatever it was Peter wasn't going to like it.

"Oh? Oh what? What does "oh" mean?"

"This must be what she meant when we were working on the death star! She said that you were keeping a secret from her."

" _What?!_ You mean she knows!" Peter's voice had never been so high - then again he'd never been so freaked out before.

"Oh yeah like she knows dude. She was telling me earlier how you were keeping this life changing secret from her and how she knew that you were lying to her and how upset that made her. Like so upset she thought that maybe-"

"Ned, Ned stop, just stop talking! How could she possibly know about Spiderman?! I've only just told you!"

"She doesn't know what it is but she definitely knows you're hiding something huge from her."

 _Oh God!_

Peter groaned as his knees suddenly buckled underneath him and he threw himself down on to his desk chair, his hand tugging desperately at his hair.

 _This cannot be happening, this seriously, seriously cannot be happening!_

 _This was bad. This was really really bad!_

Chrissie knew he was keeping a secret from her - how could she know?! He'd been so careful to make sure that he never let anything slip, never let her know that anything was wrong...

Then he'd heard it. A strange little sound coming from under his bed, a familiar sound but only one he'd recently started getting used to, something that he...

* * *

Peter's mind slowly started putting together the dots.

 _The sweater - without a doubt it was Chrissie's but he was certain it had not been in his room when he'd left this morning, so how was it here now?_

 _And Ned...Ned said that he'd spoken to Chrissie earlier...while they were working on the death star!_

 _That's why his stuff had been moved around - of course Aunt May hadn't been cleaning! Chrissie always moved his stuff around when they were working on a lego build so that they could maximise space and work together (as opposed to Peter and Ned who just did whatever)._

A sudden chill went up Peter's spine and suddenly his tongue felt too big for his mouth.

"N-Ned. What...what's that noise?"

Ned listened for a second before grinning happily at him, totally oblivious to the cold sweat which had suddenly broken out on Peter's brow and the pained look on his friend's face.

"Oh that's Lottie snuffling in her sleep. Isn't it so cute! You know usually I don't like dogs but she's just so cute and..."

Peter's blood ran cold as he made his way towards the source of the sound, lifting up the corner of his duvet where sure enough, there the puppy was, hiding under his bed snuffling away as she dreamt, her paws scratching slightly on the wooden floor beneath her.

"That's Lottie...that's Chrissie's dog. What...what is Chrissie's dog doing here?" Peter stuttered, trying his hardest not to panic but the overwhelming horror of seeing that black lab and what he presence entailed was almost too much for him to handle.

 _Maybe Aunt May was looking after Lottie, she did it every once in a while, whenever Chrissie and her Mum were going out for the evening or on the rare occassions that Aunt Georgia took Chrissie to DC with her. It was a friday, maybe they'd gone for the weekend and left Lottie with Aunt May._

Yeah that made sense...it must have been what happened because the alternative...that Chrissie was here on the day that his secret was exposed to Ned, Ned who couldn't keep a secret to save his life, was just to much to bear.

But, of course, he had no such luck. Almost as soon as the question was out of his mouth Ned was telling him all about how Chrissie had saved him from Lottie and how now the two of them were the best of friends now and how he was going to call the dog Star Lord whenever Chrissie wasn't around...

"Hey man are you alright? Look if this is about renaming the dog I'm totally open to other suggestions...this isn't...you'e not upset about the dog are you?"

"Ned. When you said that you and Chrissie were working on the death star you meant today didn't you...here in this room, before I arrived. It's why her sweater's in my room and her dog is under my bed? Chrissie's in the appartment isn't she?"

Ned nodded, and Peter let out a painful sound unlike anything Ned had ever heard before.

"Oh my God Ned! I can't believe this is happening! Why is this happening to me?! All I wanted was to do some good, but now...it feels like I'm lying to everyone all the time."

"Then tell her the truth. You don't want to tell Aunt May I get it but you have to tell Chrissie. Peter she probably wouldn't want me to tell you this but..."

"No, whatever it is no. There is no way in hell I am telling Chrissie about this. I don't want her to know, I'll do whatever it takes to make sure that she never finds out...she can't ever know about this Ned, not ever."

The two fell in to an uncomfortable silence, neither friend not quite sure what to say next given their differing opinons on the matter. Ned wanted to say something but he could tell from the look in Peter's eyes that his friend wasn't going to listen - not tonight at least.

Maybe it was best to let the dust settle and he'd try to attack the problem again tomorrow.

"Ok. But you promise to tell me all about it at school next week?"

Peter sighed deeply with relief, he knew that this conversation with Ned wasn't over but his friend was giving him an out, at least temporarily and he was more than happy to take it.

"Sure man." Peter agreed as the two teens headed towards the door, Ned firing more excited questions at him as the walked, the other boy seemingly happy to move away from their previous was glad for the distraction but at this point he wanted to just curl up and pretend this day had never happened - something he knew he wouldn't be able to do for at least another couple of hours if his Aunt insisted they go out for Thai food.

"Hey Peter?"

"Yeah Ned?"

"How do you manage to do this and the Stark internship?"

Peter stared at him.

 _He loved Ned like a brother but sometimes..._

"This is the Stark internship."

"Ahh."

Peter shook his head slightly as he patted his friend on the back and gently (but insistently) pushed him out of his room...and straight in to the person he was hoping to avoid.


	5. Chapter 5

A/N : So this is the last chapter of "How did we get so dark."

Everyone of you who have read this story and followed, favourited or left a review have truly made my day.

I've not written anything on this site for over 10 years so it's been encouraging to come back and find that people love the same things I do and welcome my story because of it.

At the end of the day we all love the characters and fan fiction otherwise we wouldn't be reading and writing it so it's great to know there are other people out there who love these characters as much as I do - and are willing to embrace my OCs too as part of that story.

If you've really enjoyed this I have (hopefully) good news...this is part of a series!

Part 2 is written and I'm currently 90% done with Part 3. I have ideas spanning over several stories but I am one of these writers who is constantly changing their mind about where they want their story to go so I'm going to hold off on posting right away just in case I change my mind again.

The plan is for Part 2 to be uploaded in the next few weeks so please keep an eye out I'll give you the planned title at the end- just in case it gives anything away!

Like usual I own nothing but my own characters and the plot.

Thank you again for reading and I hope you enjoy! :)

* * *

"Chrissie."

There was no denying the look of betrayal on her face, even Ned had seen that and had slowly backed away, hurriedly saying his goodbyes as he rused towards the front door and out of the apartment.

She'd heard something, Peter couldn't deny that - the question which made his heart pound loudly in his ears was just how much had she heard.

"Aunt...Aunt May asked me to come find you. We're about to go and get dinner so..."

She trailed off, her eyes darting to the floor. She stared at her feet for a moment, as if not sure what to do before turning in the other direction and walking away.

The look of despair on her face was just too much for Peter to bear. Without even thinking about it, he reched out and grabbed her wrist, pulling her back towards him.

His heart clenched tightly when she tensed under his fingertips.

 _God this was so much worse than he expected!_

"Chrissie wait. I...I don't know what you heard but-"

There was a sudden chill in the air and Peter was shocked to see her face distort from dispair in to bitter anger as she yanked her wrist out of his hand.

"I heard enough Peter."

"Chrissie please!"

"If you want to keep secrets from me Peter fine - but don't ask Ned to do it also. He and MJ are pretty much the only friends I have left."

"The only friends you have left. What does that mean?!"

She stared intently at him for a moment, so intensely that Peter began to shift unconfortably from side to side, until finally the anger shifted to disbelief.

"You don't know do you?"

"Know what?"

"How long has it been since we had a proper conversation Peter?"

He opened his mouth, ready to defend himself by saying that they spoke every single day, but suddenly found himself unable to do so.

 _When was the last time they had spoken? It couldn't have been that long ago could it?_

She stared at him eyebrow raised.

"How about the last time we had lunch together, or we walked home together? When was the last time I stayed over."

"I..I..."

"What's the matter? Cat got your tongue. Come on Peter. You're my best friend so it shouldn't be that difficult. Tell me, when was the last time I stayed over? I can see it on your face. You can't even remember can you?"

Peter couldn't think, it was like his brain had gone completely blank. He'd known she must have recently, the two were practically inseperable but he just couldn't think!

When had it been...

His eyes widened in realisation.

 _3 weeks. It had been 3 weeks!_

The day after he'd announced to everyone that he was quitting the decathlon team. Her Mum had been out town so she'd called Aunt May and asked if she could stay over. It'd been a particularly bad night and he'd come home more than just a little worse for wear. Aunt May had immediately caught on and tried to make a fuss which put him straight on the defensive but didn't stop her from trying to patch him up as best she could before he collapsed on his bed, too exhausted to even realise that Chrissie was in the apartment.

It wasn't until the next morning when he headed out for breakfast and saw her crashed on the sofa curled up next to Lottie that he even knew she was there. For a brief moment Peter felt guilty that he hadn't known his best friend was staying over but he quickly shoot it off and instead mumbled some excuse to his Aunt about having to leave early, while eating his toast before grabbing his bag and heading out for another day of fighting crime before school. He hadn't even stopped when Aunt May had called after him. Now he thought about it he was certain that she'd called out telling him to wait until Chrissie woke up so that they could both go together.

The memory caused Peter to frown a little.

 _When was the last time they went to school together?_

Surely they did it all the time but he just couldn't remember. There was so much to do before school, crime didn't sleep and he had to make sure he was there, ready to protect and defend whenever the city (or Mr Stark) needed him. Most mornings he did a quick round to make sure everything was fine before giving a progress report to Happy and heading to school.

There was no way in hell Chrissie would have been there for all of that so it must have been weeks, maybe even months since they'd walked to school together.

 _But he must have told her something right?_

He was sure he had sent her a text or something letting her know that he couldn't walk to school with her any more.

Except one look at her face told her he hadn't. One look at her face told her that there were a lot of things he hadn't done recently.

Peter sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

 _God he'd been a really bad friend lately._

"I'm so sorry Chrissie I -"

"Just save it Peter I'm not interested in any more of your lies."

"Lies?! What- no! I'm just trying to apologise!"

"For what Peter? For keeping a secret from me or being such a sucky friend while doing it?"

Peter fell silent, not quite knowing what to say.

 _Of course he felt bad about keeping secrets from her but he was doing it for a good reason!_

People could get hurt, _she_ could get hurt, if she knew the truth.

His mistake had been trying to push her away to protect her.

He should have realised, now that he could look back on the last couple of months with open eyes, that distancing himself from her had only made the situation worse. Made her even more aware of the fact that he was keeping secrets from her, rather than protecting her from them.

He was sorry that he'd hurt her and would do everything he could to make it up to her but he wasn't sorry that he hadn't told her the truth.

Almost as if she could sense him coming to this conclusion (after all she knew him better than anyone), Chrissie's whole demeanor changed. An air of defeat suddenly settled over her and with a sigh she moved away from him, shoulders hunched as her eyes glazed over with unshed tears.

"You know what Peter. I'm done fighting. If you don't want to tell me the truth, fine. Just...just tell Aunt May I'm not coming."

 _Wait...what?_

Peter was so thrown off by the defeated tone in her voice that he'd almost missed the abrupt change in the conversation.

"Hey Chrissie wait. What do you mean you're not coming?"

"Just tell her I'm not feeling well or something."

" _What_! No! Nothing but the plague or an act of God would separate you from Thai food. Not even the flu stopped you from marching over to Prachya's and demanding an extra large serving of larb. Aunt May will never believe me!"

"Yeah well right now I couldn't give two shits whether she believes you or not." Chrisse snapped angrily at him, causing Peter to take a step back, shocked by her words. She rarely ever sweared (or snapped) and it was never, _ever_ directed at him.

To see her this angry, knowing that that anger was just a cover for the hurt she was feeling, was almost enough for him to tell her the truth right there and then but he couldn't.

Her knowing about the Spiderman, and maybe being put in danger because of it, was far far worse than her being upset with him even if right in that moment he being angry at him felt like the worst thing in the world.

He could - he _would_ \- find a way to apologise to her for all the wrong he had done. But if she got hurt and it was all his fault...well he would never be able to apologise enough for that, or ever even begin to forgive himself.

"Chrissie. I _am_ sorry. I know you're upset and your angry with me but _please_! Let's just go to dinner and I promise I'll explain everything later."

"So you'll tell me and Aunt May over a plate of larb this massive secret you've been hiding from us for the past 6 months? Or are you going to wait until you get back to the apartment to finally spill the beans?"

Peter couldn't help it, his eyes widened in horror at the thought of telling them the truth, and like he thought she would, Chrissie caught it immediately.

She snorted bitterly and shook her head.

"I didn't think so."

She sighed deeply, pinching the bridge of her nose - a clear sign of frustration which only made Peter feel even worse about the whole situation..

"Look Peter, like I said I couldn't care less right now whether Aunt May believes you or not. Tell her I'm sick, or I'm tired, or that I wanted to look after Lottie - whatever you want ok. But I'm not going anywhere where I have to spend another second with you."

Peter couldn't help but let out a small painful gasp at her words as he stared intently at her, hoping against all hope that what she was saying wasn't true, that she only said it in the heat of the moment because she was angry. But he could tell. Right now she wanted absolutly nothing to do with him.

His heart clenched again at the thought that she meant more than just tonight.

 _What if...what if she meant that she didn't want to see him again - ever?_

Peter moved to take a step towards her but she immediately took a step back, wrapping her arms around herself as if to protect herself from him.

It was one of the most painful things he'd ever seen.

"Chrissie I-"

"I'm just going to go Peter. Before either of us say something we can't take back. Enjoy your larb."

With that she let pushed past him in to his room to grab Lottie from under his bed and rushed through the bathroom they shared and through the connecting door which lead in to her bedroom.

Peter heard the click of the lock and with it felt a little bit of his heart breaking as stumbled back, leaning heavily against the door frame.

She'd never locked him out before.

 _How had they gotten to this place?_

* * *

A/N : Yeah so as the title suggests, things are not in a good place for Peter and Chrissie, but there's always hope! :D

If you're interested in finding out what happens next the 2nd part should be up within the next couple of weeks and will be called "Keep the peace in the dark."

I hope you've enjoyed Part 1!


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